Wednesday, 30 September 2009

Rafael Benítez has described the 2-0 defeat against Fiorentina as Liverpool's worst performance in his time at the club, as Liverpool were rocked by two first half strikes from teenager Stevan Jovetic. The Reds were slow to start and the fast passing Tuscany side were clearly Happy to take advantage of the Anfield clubs sluggish opening 45 minutes, impressing several punishing moves, converting twice.

"Our mentality in that opening period was just not right, we were bad all over the pitch and I cannot really recall a performance like that," said Benítez in the Telegraph.

“The first half was the worst performance I have seen in my time here. We were doing everything wrong. Fiorentina pressed us well and made us make mistakes. When you make mistakes at this level, you get punished. I was not happy with the challenging all over the pitch in the first half. The mentality was not good enough. We were too nervous. They did well, but we did everything badly.”

"We now have Chelsea away at the weekend in an important Premier League game. I believe you will see a different Liverpool in that match, a totally different performance with a different mentality.

"Then we have Lyon home and away in this group, they are the leaders and it means we have to now win them both.

"We certainly will not be as bad again. If you make too many mistakes against such sides, you will be punished. It is very simple.

"Mentally we will have better days than this. We did improve, but we needed to score early in the second-half. We had the chances but we failed to take them."

Fiorentina coach and former Juventus player Cesare Prandelli said: "We were fantastic, that is the best performance I have seen by a Fiorentina side in the four years I have been in charge.

"Liverpool did not play well, but that was because of the performance of my team. We were outstanding."